Ukrainian forces staged an overnight ambush on a Russian convoy 40km inside the international border in Russia’s Kursk region, as the Kremlin declared a federal emergency and said it was transferring extra forces to try to snuff out a four-day incursion that has badly damaged its credibility.
A video circulated by Russian military bloggers showed a destroyed convoy, with bodies just visible inside some trucks, on the E38 east-west highway at Oktyabrskoe, a location far deeper inside Russia than any previously confirmed fighting since Ukraine’s forces crossed the border on Tuesday.
Commentators said the attack, reminiscent of Ukrainian attacks on Russian troops besieging Kyiv in the first weeks of the war, demonstrated an effective hit-and-run strategy, but the incursion appeared likely to draw an escalating response from the Kremlin, and its overall outcome remains profoundly uncertain.
Photo: Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP
The Russian Ministry of Defense at lunchtime on Friday said it was transferring military reserves to the Kursk region, including Grad rockets, artillery and tanks. A video released by the Russian armed forces news channel Zvezda showed a convoy of trucks carrying armored vehicles down a highway.
Kursk Oblast acting governor Alexei Smirnov said Moscow had declared a state of federal emergency in the morning and he urged residents to “stay calm and keep up your fighting spirit, support each other, do not give in to panic and despondency.” So far 3,000 Russian civilians have been evacuated away from the fighting.
Ukraine was able to burst through a lightly defended Kursk border on Tuesday morning with several hundred troops. Ukraine’s forces have engaged in fast-moving maneuver warfare, a type of combat that has rarely been seen during the war in Ukraine, which has been largely dominated by fortified trenches and heavy mining, preventing breakthroughs.
The fast-moving fighting and limited sources of information mean it is hard to be sure where the frontlines are in the sector.
A video posted on Ukrainian media outlets on Friday showed Ukrainian soldiers at a gas measuring facility in the town of Sudzha, 10km from the border, which they said they controlled. It was not immediately possible to verify the video, but the claims were echoed by Russia’s semi-independent military bloggers, the principal source of information about the incursion.
GENDER ROW: The IOC has stripped the boxing association, which disqualified Lin Yu-ting at the 2023 World Championships, of its status as the sport’s global governing body The Sports Administration yesterday protested the International Boxing Association’s (IBA) stance on a gender row involving a Taiwanese fighter at the Paris Games, saying the nation’s Olympic committee was considering filing a lawsuit. A storm erupted over the participation of Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) and Algeria’s Imane Khelif at the Paris Olympics when Khelif’s Italian opponent pulled out of their bout less than a minute into the fight after taking a barrage of punches. On Sunday, Lin beat Svetlana Staneva of Bulgaria via a unanimous decision in a featherweight quarter-final fight. The IBA on Monday said that Lin and Khelif had been disqualified from
TALLY: Sharpshooter Lee Meng-yuan won Taiwan’s first medal in Paris, taking home a bronze, while boxer Chen Nien-chin has secured at least a bronze medal Taiwanese badminton duo Lee Yang (李洋) and Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) yesterday won the gold medal in the men's doubles final at the Paris Olympics, defeating China's Liang Weikeng (梁偉鏗) and Wang Chan (王昶). The victory made them the first Taiwanese shuttlers to win more than one Olympic medal with back-to-back gold. They were crowned champions in the event at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago. Earlier in the day, Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) secured her first Olympic medal in front of a crowd chanting her name, a day after fellow boxer Imane Khelif did the same, following days of online abuse
Cheaper hotel rates and delicious street food made Taipei the most affordable city in Asia to visit in the second half of this year, a travel trend analysis conducted by Leisure and Travel magazine and the Web site Kayak.com showed. Taipei and nine other Asian cities were selected as affordable travel destinations based on “average round-trip economy airfare” and “the average rate of a one-night stay in a standard double hotel room,” they said. The results of their analysis, published on Wednesday last week, showed that the average cost of a round-trip flight and one night at a hotel in Taipei was
BOWING OUT: Wang Chi-lin became the nation’s oldest Olympic gold medalist at 29, while Lee Yang said he has not changed his plan to retire at the end of this season Taiwanese badminton duo Lee Yang (李洋) and Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟), who won gold at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, on Sunday expressed their gratitude to fans for their support after they defended their title in Paris. “The cheers of fans were huge [to me]; that’s pretty much what kept me going,” Wang told a news conference after the final. The reigning champions secured back-to-back golds by upsetting world No. 1 duo Liang Weikeng (梁偉鏗) and Wang Chang (王昶) of China in a 76-minute marathon, which ended 21-17, 18-21, 21-19. Lee shared a similar sentiment and said he was particularly touched when the audience